Squirrel Boy

Henry Fuseli - The Nightmare

I must have been thinking about my nephew recently. Actually I know I was because he is the subject of my most recent strange dream. Before I tell you about it I want to say that it's going to be a hard one because I only remember it in bits and pieces. But I'll do my best.

I remember being in my backyard watching a remarkable amount of squirrels. There were just so many. My backyard this time wasn't a backyard I have in the real world, but it was mine in the dream.

The squirrels are another thing. I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert on squirrel behavior. My other blog shows that a little bit.

Today in the dream there seemed to be all the major variety of tree squirrels on the ground and in the trees right there in my yard with me. There were also very many of them. Maybe a hundred or more. Plenty of squirrels for me to watch and describe to any who would listen. They were running up and down the trees and around on the ground. They seemed to be everywhere.

The other thing back there with me was the subject of my dream. My nephew. He was still a little boy in my dream, but in real life is grown. I have to say that a s a kid he could act pretty strangely in a comical way. You may know a boy or two in your family who may be similar.

As we watched the squirrels I began to describe how the different types of squirrels would gather together in little tribes. They don't actually do that so much, but they did in the dream. I showed my nephew how each kind would gather in small groups and do their squirrel things.

Then, remembering his love of strangeness, I suggested to my nephew that he pretend to be a squirrel and attempt to join one of the groups. He was actually an excellent mimic. When he was about three he used to be able to sing the Scooby Doo theme song exactly, including the backup parts.

My nephew thought joining the squirrels was an excellent idea, so we picked out just the group for him. We found a group of three, a big female with two smaller males. I told him his mission was to infiltrate the group and then get the smaller of the three kicked out. (This maybe wasn't quite such a mean idea as it seems.)

As my nephew began to imitate the squirrels to gain their trust, the squirrels now seemed to be as big as humans while still maintaining their squirrel size. Remember, this was a dream. So now my nephew was about the same size as the smallest squirrel in the group.

My nephew slowly moved towards the group of three trying to gain their trust. It seemed to be working amazingly well. They also began to inch towards him. They liked him! We did it! He successfully joined the group.

I don't remember the details, but my nephew was very quickly able to get the smallest squirrel kicked out of the group. That little one just as quickly joined another group. So it was just fine.

And there my nephew's new tribe went, doing all those squirrel things you see squirrels do all the time. The only thing my nephew couldn't do well was climb trees like the others could. I tried showing him, but he was just too human to be able to imitate them completely. They were still patient with him despite this deficiency.

The last thing I remember was the two squirrels and my nephew just walking around following each other in a straight line. My nephew's transformation to squirrel boy was seemingly complete, and so was my dream.